PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Teachers at Presque Isle High School were busy counting change during the early morning hours of Wednesday, March 28, for the National Honor Society’s Delay the Day fundraiser to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Every year juniors and seniors in Presque Isle’s NHS chapter participate in activities that align with the four pillars of NHS: scholarship, character, service and leadership. Chapters across Aroostook County are hosting Delay the Day fundraisers this week.
The fundraiser asks students to bring in coins to their first-period class. Teachers then have to spend the period counting coins instead of teaching, thus “delaying” the school day.
All 35 PIHS faculty who teach first-period classes, which begin at 8:25 a.m., attempted to collect as many coins as possible from students. Soon after the fundraiser began, social studies teacher Zachary Powers and several students were busy counting dozens of coins that covered the entire length of three desks.
“We have $46 so far,” Powers said. He had help from NHS member Madison Boucher and two junior students from his first-period Advanced Placement U.S. History class — Libby Boone, Eric Smith and Savanna Rodriguez.
In the end, the classrooms raised $555.79 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which participates in research, provides free educational information and advocacy for cancer patients suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma.
“We had been looking at suggested fundraisers on the society’s website and thought that Delay the Day would be a great one to get a lot of students to participate,” Madison Boucher said.
